Cat Ballou (1965) |
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Cat Ballou (1965) |
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| BUY IT |
| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Comedy Western |
Audio Commentary-Dwayne Hickman and Michael Callan (Actors) Featurette-The Legend of Cat Ballou Filmographies-Cast & Crew Trailer-The Winslow Boy, The Mouse That Roared Gallery-Poster-Vintage Advertising |
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| Rating |
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| Year Of Production | 1965 | ||
| Running Time | 92:10 | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | No/No | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 2,4,5 | Directed By | Elliot Silverstein |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Sony Pictures Home Entertain |
Starring |
Jane Fonda Lee Marvin Michael Callan Dwayne Hickman Nat King Cole Stubby Kaye Tom Nardini John Marley Reginald Denny |
| Case | ? | ||
| RPI | $19.95 | Music |
Frank De Vol Mack David Jerry Livingston |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) |
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| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.85:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
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| Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 1.85:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles |
English French German Italian Spanish Dutch Arabic Czech Danish Finnish Greek Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Norwegian Polish Portuguese Swedish Turkish French Audio Commentary German Audio Commentary Italian Audio Commentary Spanish Audio Commentary Dutch Audio Commentary |
Smoking | Yes |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | No | ||
I didn't get to see this film on its original theatrical run — I was a bit young. I first saw it when a sports teacher chose to show this film to a mob of junior high school boys (of which I was one) rather than attempt to run a sports class indoors — there was a major thunderstorm outside. You might think that these were hardly ideal viewing conditions, but I remember enjoying the film thoroughly, and not just because it was much better than running around in the rain.
This film can be enjoyed by pretty much the whole family, although a really fussy parent might be worried about a small child seeing someone shot and killed (no blood, they just fall down). It's a comedy Western, perhaps the funniest comedy Western made so far; it is funnier than The Three Amigos (even though I do like that film), and a lot more wholesome than Blazing Saddles.
Our story opens with Cat (short for Catherine) Ballou's hanging day. Cat Ballou (Jane Fonda) is to be hung for killing a man. As the moment approaches, the screen goes all wavy (remember when that was the standard signal for a flashback?), and we flashback to when things started to go wrong... Catherine was escorted onto a train by her teacher after graduating with a teaching qualification. She's on the train home to her father's ranch, just outside Wolf City, Wyoming. On the train she meets a young man, handcuffed to a sheriff. Then she meets a priest, who looks quite proper, but who admits to being drunk. The priest turns out to be Uncle Jed (Dwayne Hickman) to the young man, Clay Boone (Michael Callan). Jed helps Clay away from the sheriff, but the escape goes a bit wrong, and Clay is forced to hide in Cat's bunk for a brief period.
When Cat gets home she finds that the ranch is not doing well. Her father (John Marley) is being harassed by Wolf City Development Corporation and its hired gun, Tim Strawn (Lee Marvin). She is scared for him, and when she runs across Clay and Jed again she hires them to protect her father. Turns out they aren't gunmen, so she hires Kid Shelleen (Lee Marvin - yup, again!), a famous gunfighter. He turns out to be something other than what she expects, too.
Although she's the central character, Jane Fonda plays her role quite straight (even more than she did in Barbarella) — she looks gorgeous, and so very earnest. Lee Marvin, on the other hand, is a riot as Kid Shelleen (practicing his drunkenness, and even his singing, for Paint Your Wagon...) — it's no surprise that he won the Best Actor Oscar for this performance. It's the only Oscar the film won, but heck, it was up against Sound of Music, Doctor Zhivago, Thunderball, ... this was quite a year.
One of the highlights of this film is the narration in ballad form by Professor Samuel Shade and the Sunrise Kid (perhaps better known as Stubby Kaye and Nat King Cole). Their singing is an excellent bridge between the parts of the story.
There are some wonderful moments on horseback with Kid Shelleen — Lee Marvin reckoned that the horse earned half the Oscar for him (everyone remembers the horse with the crossed legs...). I was quite amused to watch this film just after watching Shane; in that film the good guy wears buckskin, and the bad gunfighter is in all black, and in this film Lee Marvin follows both traditions: Shelleen in buckskin, and Strawn in black. There are references to other classic Westerns, too, like the handclap/gun draw from The Magnificent Seven — hardly surprising, given that this film lovingly sends up the entire Western genre.
I could go on at considerable length, but I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it — just trust me, this is really funny, you'll enjoy it. Strongly recommended!
This transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, with 16x9 enhancement. That's the original aspect ratio, so there's nothing to complain about there.
The image is a little soft, possibly due to film grain, but not enough to detract from enjoying the film. Shadow detail is limited, but adequate. There's no low level noise.
Colour is rather well-rendered, and there are some nice bright colours (Trixie's dress, for example), but most of the colours are fairly muted by production design. There are no colour-related artefacts.
There are very few film artefacts, amazingly, considering that this film is closing in on 40 years old. It looks like it has been well-cared-for, and probably well restored.
There is very little in the way of aliasing or moiré on a progressive system, and not much more on a non-progressive one. There is a bit of edge enhancement in one or two scenes, but it's fairly subtle. There's a little bit of MPEG background shimmer, but no other MPEG artefacts.
There are a plethora of subtitles (well, soundtrack subtitles in nineteen languages + commentary subtitles in five languages) on this disc. The only ones I watched were the ones in English; they are perfectly adequate, being well-timed, about as accurate as usual, and easy to read.
The disc is single-sided and single layered. There is no layer change, but the desire to fit it all onto one layer may be the reason we see the spots of background shimmer.
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The soundtrack is provided in five languages, all in Dolby Digital 2.0, not surround encoded, at 192kbps. The audio commentary, in English, is the same.
The dialogue is easy enough to understand, with one or two words a little blurred by drunkenness. Audio sync is mostly fine, although there are moments that look very slightly out of sync (see 29:58, for example) — you'll only notice it if you're looking really closely.
The De Vol's score is entertaining, and part of the fun of this movie. The songs sung by Stubby Kaye and Nat King Cole were written by Mack David and Jerry Livingston.
This 2.0 soundtrack sounds completely mono, so only your centre channel speaker will get anything to do (if Prologic is enabled) or your mains (if not). Your surround speakers and subwoofer can have a rest.
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The menu is static and silent, but simple to use.
This featurette concentrates on director Elliot Silverstein. It's quite interesting, but contains plenty of spoilers — don't watch it before you've seen the movie.
A couple of trailers that have nothing to do with this movie:
One or two pages of select filmographies for each of:
This was a real disappointment. When the menu said "Cast Commentary" I was expecting Jane Fonda, at least (I know Lee Marvin's dead, which would put a crimp in his comments), but no, all we get is two comparatively unimportant members of the cast. They have a lot to say, but very little of it is of much interest — one gets the impression that this was the one really successful film these two were in, and they've been basking in its glory ever since — that's kinda sad.
This commentary is subtitled in five languages (English is not one of them). That's nice. Shame the commentary isn't better to deserve it.
This is interesting: nine pages of stills taken from lobby advertising for the movie. The photos look like retouched black-and-white photos rather than colour photos.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
The Region 1 version of this disc was released some little time back. It is one of those R1 discs with a wide-screen transfer on one side, and a full-screen transfer on the other of a double-sided disc. It has the same extras as the R4, except that its trailers include the trailer for Cat Ballou, another Jane Fonda film (China Syndrome), and three other Westerns — all of those can claim some reason for being on the disc (unlike the trailers on the R4 disc). Still, I've never really counted trailers as making a heap of difference to a disc.
The Region 4 version is missing:
The Region 1 version is missing:
You could count the R4 disc as being equivalent to the wide-screen side of the R1 disc, and much easier to handle (double-sided discs are a pain to handle). If you really want a full-screen transfer, then the R1 is the one to get.
The two discs offer equivalent transfers, with the R1 being a little bit brighter, but a little bit harsher (the differences are small). Both transfers are more than a little grainy (most noticeable when the image is paused). I really don't think there's enough extra in the R1 to justify calling the two different.
A delightful favourite Western comedy, given quite a decent transfer to DVD.
The video quality is good, considering the age of the film.
The audio quality is good enough.
The extras look like more than they are, and the commentary is a disappointment.
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| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Pioneer DV-S733A, using Component output |
| Display | Sony VPH-G70 CRT Projector, QuadScan Elite scaler (Tripler), ScreenTechnics 110. Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable. |
| Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials. |
| Amplification | Denon AVC-A1SE |
| Speakers | Front Left, Centre, Right: Krix Euphonix; Rears: Krix KDX-M; Subwoofer: Krix Seismix 5 |